Help! The PADI wheel...

[bubblzmaker]

Hi diver buddies. I have not used the wheel in about five years, and need a quick refresh on calibrating and then using. Anyone have a step by step written out? I know that once I begin to read it and perform the steps, it will all come back to me. Thanks so much in advance...

 

[Doc]

Hi diver buddies. I have not used the wheel in about five years, and need a quick refresh on calibrating and then using. Anyone have a step by step written out? I know that once I begin to read it and perform the steps, it will all come back to me. Thanks so much in advance...

The PADI wheel can barely be explained in person, much less overthe internet. Go to your local dive shop and if nothing else, read the manual.

It is a useful tool for understanding multi-level dives and a doorway view into how computers work.

The alignment dots may indeed all set up, yet I have still found them to be slightly off (rare occasions).

Take a look at the ERDP, I hear Ikelite is going to make a waterproof case for them soon.

Go to your LDS for a quick look and refresher on the Wheel.

 

[SubMariner]

The PADI wheel can barely be explained in person, much less overthe internet. Go to your local dive shop and if nothing else, read the manual.

It is a useful tool for understanding multi-level dives and a doorway view into how computers work.

The alignment dots may indeed all set up, yet I have still found them to be slightly off (rare occasions).

....................................................................................................................

Go to your LDS for a quick look and refresher on the Wheel.

At the very minimum ask for their copy of the Wheel video. The acting is hokey, but they do a great job of explaining how to use the Wheel.

But keep at it: with the Wheel you can also calculate multi-level dives, something that the flat tables can't really handle.

Bonne chance,

 

[lostplanetairman]

Why?

Only Dive Master Candidates and the Antiques Roadshow have intrest in the wheel.

 

[SubMariner]

Why?

Only Dive Master Candidates and the Antiques Roadshow have intrest in the wheel.

Perhaps because it is an excellent way to plan dives if you do not have a dive PC: you can use it to calculate multi-level dives, which you cannot do with the regular "flat" RDP.

Frankly, if it weren't for the extra cost over the regular RDP (which most of my students don't want to spend) I would teach the Wheel more often.

Pax,

 

[Doc]

Why?Only Dive Master Candidates and the Antiques Roadshow have intrest in the wheel.

At the risk of feeding the trolls... maybe someone curious is reading!

Someday, PADI will put away the wheel, just as they are putting away the RDP Table Charts (with the ERDP) They will embrace the computer... as soon as they all work the same. And that is the big issue... they do not. How can you standardize a teching method over and object that isn't standardized?

What good is learning the charts... the wheel? I say it is valuable. I want to understand (the basis for) the rate at which my body absorbs and releases residual nitrogen during a dive, the surface interval and subsequent dives.

Depends on how your mind absorbs information. I liked the graphic step-laddering of the RDP. If you understand how to work it--- then really study it, even a math-feeble mind like mine can piece this together.

It's obvious that PADI has relized that today's minds are baffled by the analog texture of the RDP and have given the ERDP (basically and electronic calculator version) an entre. I believe it's important to understand the tables, the calculator thingie I'm not getting. You know how the tables work? Move on.

The downside to the RDP is it assumes square profiles. Your max depth is to be considered your depth for the entire bottom time (BT)... but we know that isn't true.

My dive buddy, "Herself" dives with a computer (really 2). She also works the RDP. By Tuesday, we joke and say, "Dead yet?". She is so far off the charts that by their direction she should have taken the 24 hour no-dive break yesterday! Yet, in her own mind, working the tables means something. Okay, fine- she has other qualities that make up for this illogical process.

The wheel adds another bit of investigatory info into the equation. You can use the wheel to understand better what different depths for different amounts of time during dives will do to your Nitrogen computations. If you learn how to work it- then study how it works, you have a real understanding of exactly how a computer works. The wheel allows you to sample dive depths at varying times during a dive- a computer might sample and compute every ten seconds. Okay, here's the wheel. Understand how to work it. Okay. Understand how it works? BINGO!

For those of us who have one (or more) computers that we live by, the knowledge of how they work would seem to be relevant.

Yet there are some computer divers who only understand how to read whether there are yellow or red pixels on the dial. That's why PADI (and other agencies) teach the tables.

It's better to understand.

 

[ch0ppersrule]

Why?

Only Dive Master Candidates and the Antiques Roadshow have intrest in the wheel.

I have only been diving for 2 years and I was taught the wheel. That is all I know how to use. When I went through Nitrox class it was really difficult to figure out the tables because I learned everything on the wheel. I still don't use tables. The wheel is 100X easier to use.

Melissa

 

[rockjock3]

The big problem with the eRDP is that it is just the RDP. I was talking to my instructor about it and asked if it gives you a little more flexibility by giving you more "in between depths" and so on. He told me nope, if you type in 73 feet it will round it to 80 (not 75 like on the wheel) and give you the exact answer from the table. It also isn't waterproof. All the eRDP seems to be is way to make money of people who choose not to use the standard RDP. Heck, you can't even use it for multilevel diving. I bought the wheel for about the same price and the eRDP and it is as fast as having to type the info in the eRDP, I can do multilevel on it and I can drop it in the water or dive with it and it won't stop working.

 

[Dan Gibson]

Are you positive about that? I don't remember how it is done, and maybe that it just approximates the wheel for multilevel dives, but I do recall someone showing me a trick they learned to do just this with the RDP. I never used it this way or even checked it out since I don't use these items. Someone else may know the answer as to whether or not this was just BS.

Perhaps because it is an excellent way to plan dives if you do not have a dive PC: you can use it to calculate multi-level dives, which you cannot do with the regular "flat" RDP.



Pax,

 

[SubMariner]

Are you positive about that? I don't remember how it is done, and maybe that it just approximates the wheel for multilevel dives, but I do recall someone showing me a trick they learned to do just this with the RDP. I never used it this way or even checked it out since I don't use these items. Someone else may know the answer as to whether or not this was just BS.

It is a long, complicated, and not esp accurate process to try to figure out multi-level dives with the regular RDP. Frankly, it was never designed to do anything but single level dives.

Meanwhile, I've talked with several other Instructors about the eRDP, and most wonder why PADI introduced it; the only thing it seems to do is help those who have problems learning how to use the regular RDP (specifically, to add in the residual N2).

Anyways, we shouldn't be hijacking this thread any longer. Sorry about that bubblzmaker!